


Sky Blue, It Suits You

by HyperSpikes



Series: 4 times Sonic saved Green Hills (+1 time Green Hills saved Sonic) [3]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: 4 times +1 time, Gen, Heartwarming, dedicated to my friend, pre-release
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:49:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22609564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperSpikes/pseuds/HyperSpikes
Summary: A young and shy painter in the town of Green Hills struggles to find her inspiration to paint. A certain blue hedgehog might help to fix that. Based off of "Kiki's Delivery Service".
Series: 4 times Sonic saved Green Hills (+1 time Green Hills saved Sonic) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607812
Comments: 24
Kudos: 204





	Sky Blue, It Suits You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RAWN89](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=RAWN89).



> This story is inspired by Studio Ghibli’s “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. A good friend of mine loves Studio Ghibli and also happens to be a huge Sonic fan too! This story is dedicated to my long-time friend, RAWN89! She writes fanfictions and is a very talented artist as well! Check out her work on fanfiction.net and deviantart.com!

Iris sighed as she pursed her lips and stared frustratingly at the canvas in front of her. That didn’t look right either. As she brought her hand up to her face in deep thought – and accidentally getting some green paint on her cheek in the process – she cast her eyes toward the growing pile in the corner. If she threw this one out now, it would be her fifth wasted canvas this week.

She put her paintbrush down and stepped over to her subject. The plotted plant was beautiful, but for some reason, it wasn’t what she needed. Her plants didn’t light her up the way they used to. She’d tended to them as if they were her children, and it just didn’t feel right to ask any more from them when they’d grown so splendidly.

_So what is it that’s giving me such a hard time?_

She opted to close her eyes and sit back in her garden chair for a moment to clear her mind. It was a quiet day. A light breeze and birdsong were all she heard for a few minutes. It had been like this for the past few weeks, and if she was being honest, she was getting kind of bored with it. She didn’t mean to complain about the wonderful weather. But sometimes… she just wished…

Far in the distance, she began to hear something else. It was like the wind, but it was faster and stronger. It had _purpose._ She opened her eyes and stood up, her eyes focused on the world around her. What was that coming this way?

Seconds later, a blast of wind shook the air, and everything seemed to slow down to a crawl. She watched in awe as a bullet of blue swept passed her garden. Iris was suddenly glad she’d decided to wear her hair up in a bun today; her hair would’ve obscured her vision and she wouldn’t have been able to catch that small glimpse of the alien hedgehog that had made Green Hills his home. She felt her jaw drop as his bright green eyes locked with hers for a short moment before time seemed to resume and he was gone. 

As her plotted plants began to settle down in the dying wind, she shakily sat down in her garden chair again and listened as Sonic raced across the town – over the hills, through the trees, across the river, over mountains and under bridges…

Something within her sparked. She stood up again and strode over to a new canvas, this time with purpose. She washed all the green off her paintbrush and instead dabbed it in a little bit of blue.

. . .

By the time she finished her painting, the sun had long gone down and she’d migrated inside her home to keep warm. She let out a breath of pride as she stood back to admire her work. Streaks of blue exploded from one side of the painting and tapered down into gentle streams of light. She could practically _feel_ the movement from the painting and her heart raced at the thought that maybe – just maybe – she might be able to capture Sonic’s untamable speed. The vague form of a spiked woodland creature graced the center of the explosion, complete with a cute button nose.

She was nearly finished. All she needed to complete her painting were Sonic’s emerald eyes. She washed off her paintbrush and dipped it into green. As she brought the brush up to the little hedgehog’s face, she froze.

For the next few moments, she was caught in a cycle of reaching up to the painting to finally finish the job and then biting her lip before pulling her hand away again. She once again found herself sighing in frustration as she slowly put down the paintbrush.

She decided green was the hardest color to work with.

. . .

She spent the next morning pacing her living room. After weighing her options, Iris finally sat down and decided there was only one way to complete her painting. Sighing in frustration, she stormed over to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. There was only one problem with what she had to do, and it was staring at her in the mirror. There was a reason why she decided to move out into the rural woods of Green Hills. It wasn’t _just_ to pursue her career as an artist. She’d been lucky enough to make some money off her paintings and other obscure drawings, and although she definitely wasn’t famous for her work, they paid the bills most of the time. But if she was being honest with herself, she was out here to avoid _people._

Sonic wasn’t a human, though, and she wondered what it would be like to converse with an alien. She was a little excited for _that_ aspect of her predicament. After having a small and anxious pep-talk with herself in the mirror, she took a deep breath, got dressed, and headed down into town to the police station.

Not much action happened around Green Hills, which meant the police station was usually pretty empty. When she approached the sheriff’s office and finally spoke with him, she quietly mumbled that she wasn’t there for an emergency but that she needed his help. She was a bit intimidated by the sheriff and couldn’t help but feel afraid that he would harshly turn her away when she explained why she was there.

“… You want to see Sonic?”

Iris nodded, and despite her anxiety, willed herself to look up into Tom’s eyes for a moment. She knew what she was requesting was bizarre at best, but she had to at least try, and she was damn _proud_ of herself. She suddenly found her voice, and although it was shaky, she couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth.

“I’m a painter, a-and I mean, I-I don’t want to be rude or creepy or anything, but I haven’t been inspired in weeks and this is the first time I’ve actually felt happy about a painting and I can’t finish it because the eyes are too hard to do and I mean, y-you know him and s-so I just thought that – "

“Whoa, whoa!” Tom said, trying to ease the girl out of her rambling. “Why don’t you just, uh, breathe for a second, okay? No need to take up all my air in the office, yeah?”

Iris hesitantly looked up at Tom and saw he was smiling good-naturedly. She felt relief wash over her, and she offered him a small smile back.

“Look,” Tom eventually said. “Give me your address and I’ll tell Sonic about you when I see him, maybe ask him to stop by your place tomorrow. Sound like a deal?”

With a nod and an exchange of information, Iris was headed back to her home, her heart a little lighter. She was nervous and was still a little antsy from her talk with Tom, but something loud and beautiful deep inside of her was so, _so_ proud.

. . .

To her surprise, Sonic actually came to her house. She was out in her garden, her eyes trained hard on another painting of hers. This time, her brush was dappled in bright pink to match the lovely carnations she had been growing. She’d been so focused on getting the folding petals just right that she didn’t notice Sonic until he stepped up onto her porch and made the wood creak. She jumped at the sound, dropping her paintbrush in the act as she stared at the hedgehog with wide, curious eyes.

She’d seen pictures of the hedgehog in the local newspaper, but she’d never been this close to the real thing before. Sonic was very small, for one thing. He was a lot fuzzier than she would have expected and wondered if he could stay warm when it snowed. But when her own eyes finally locked onto his, she realized with a start that she didn’t feel uneasy looking at him in the eyes. She wasn’t sure why. Besides their bright color, there was nothing particularly special about his eyes.

“Hi!” Sonic said, offering her a wave.

Upon realizing that she had been staring, she shook her head and picked her up paintbrush gingerly.

“U-um… hi!” she stammered as she brushed her hair aside, accidentally getting some pink on her cheek. She made to invite Sonic into her home, but he had suddenly disappeared from where he had been standing. She glanced around for a moment, lips pursed in apprehension, before slowly backing up and accidentally bumping Sonic, who had appeared behind her and was staring at her painting.

“Flowers?”

“T-That’s not finished yet! It’s ugly and n-not my best work, but I’m w-working on it and I promise that my other paintings a-aren’t as b –”

“You _made_ this?” Sonic all but gasped in wide-eyed wonder.

Iris opened her mouth to respond with another excuse, but something in her told her to stop. _I’m not talented._ **Yes, I am.**

“… Y-yeah. Yeah, I made that,” she said, clearing her throat. She watched as Sonic took in all her other paintings with that same joy and awe. She listened to him ramble about how Maddie would like this one, or how that one would look nice in Tom’s house. Seeing someone look so happy about something that she’d made with her own two hands was such a wonderful feeling. With that light-heartedness fueling her inner strength, she took another breath and said, “um, I actually have more paintings inside, if you want to come and see.”

Sonic happily agreed, and she led him inside and, after offering him tea and a snack, showed him her other paintings – along with the one she had yet to finish. For once, Iris took a step back and realized that nearly all of her paintings had the same kind of color scheme: green with a few other colors added in for petals or flower buds. Without even knowing it, she’d entirely neglected the other colors available to her – including blue. It was no wonder that Sonic was immediately drawn to the blue painting in the back of the room, as it was the only one of its kind.

Iris watched him curiously. She wanted to know if he could figure out that the creature in the center of the painting was him. She waited with bated breath as he quietly analyzed the painting. A few seconds later, he turned to her with a quizzical look in his eye.

“What kind of flower is this?”

Iris couldn’t help but let out a giggle. She couldn’t fathom how such a fast and powerful creature could be so goofy at the same time. She stepped over to her painting and pointed at the creature’s face.

“See the little nose and the spikes? It’s you,” she said sweetly.

“ _Me_?” Sonic asked, flabbergasted but looking a little proud as well. “You painted me? Why?”

“I s-saw you run by the other day. I’ve never seen anything like it. To t-tell you the truth, I haven’t been painting that much lately. But you inspired me.”

Iris couldn’t see the blush under Sonic’s fur, but she could tell he was a bit bashful at the thought that Iris had gone out of her way to paint him. He scratched his cheek a little and offered her an awkward smile. Iris looked at her painting again, and then back to Sonic.

“Um… It’s not finished yet,” she said, hiding her arms behind her back and avoiding Sonic’s gaze. “I… can’t get the eyes right, and I wanted to know if you would stay for a few minutes so I could paint them correctly? Y-you could have one of my painting –”

“Deal!” Sonic said, sticking his hand out enthusiastically. Iris blinked. That was much easier than she’d expected. He immediately pointed to the door. “I want the one you have outside!”

Iris let out a bark of laughter before lightly taking Sonic’s hand and shaking on it. After promising him that he could have the painting in her garden, she sat him down on a chair and dabbed her paintbrush in green paint before setting to work. Before long, the little creature at the center of her painting had a personality. Through its eyes, she could finally see what had inspired her to paint Sonic. It was his freedom – the ability to go anywhere at anytime, and most importantly, being comfortable with being an alien in a world full of people. Iris realized that she too wanted to be just as free as Sonic, but in a different way. She wanted to be free from her social anxiety and her self-depreciation.

By the time she finished her painting, she’d silently made a vow to herself: to try her best to step out of her comfort zone when she could. She vowed to challenge herself, because she never knew what kinds of good things could come out of opening her mouth and getting a few words out. Looking into Sonic’s eyes wasn’t hard for her to do, and at first she couldn’t figure out why. But she soon discovered that maybe – just maybe – it wasn’t Sonic’s eyes, but how _she_ perceived them. Maybe it was a sign that something in her was growing stronger.

. . .

A week later, when Iris found herself struggling to paint, she packed up her supplies, took a brave breath, an walked down into town.


End file.
